Josh Anderson will now wear the A that was once sewn onto Brendan Gallagher's Montreal Canadiens jersey, a nomination that means a lot to the veteran player.
Before the first swing at the Montreal Canadiens’ golf tournament, the team announced that Josh Anderson would be an alternate captain on a permanent basis. The news didn’t exactly come as a shock, since he filled in for Brendan Gallagher when he wasn’t in the lineup last season, but the Habs still could have gone another way and given it to a younger core player.
The veteran was visibly pleased with his nomination and was beaming with pride when he spoke to the media:
Obviously very honored and humbled to be an alternate captain for the Montreal Canadiens. We got a lot of good leaders in that locker room that have matured so quickly in the last couple years and I think it’s just that I’m very humbled to have this opportunity to share this role with Mike Matheson and Nick Suzuki and help lead this group.
Since he’s entering the last year of his contract, it was inevitable that he would be asked about his future, and his answer was crystal clear:
I think for me personally it’s a little bit different than my last two contracts negotiating that, I don’t have to tell you guys about how much I love this city, how much I love this team, I think the culture that we’ve been building over the last four or five years since Marty and Gorts and Kent have come has obviously been something pretty special. It’s obviously something that’s in the back of your head but you know, you’re in a good place, this city’s been unbelievable, my daughter was born here, playing close from home and just the people that you get to work with, for the last six, seven years, it’s been great so I’m a big believer in things will work out, I really do see myself being in Montreal and I’m sure those conversation [contract negotiations] will start picking up soon.
Anderson clearly isn’t interested in playing anywhere else and Montreal is the place that he wants to be. Question is, will he be able to remain as effective and convince management to extend him? If he plays like he did in the playoffs, it will seem like a foregone conclusion, but if he shows signs of slowing down, like Brendan Gallagher did, it may not be quite so simple. The power forward is already 32, he’ll be 33 by season’s end and he’s had his fair share of injuries.
There’s no denying that Anderson is a great leader, the way that he had soldiered through injuries over the years has certainly caught management eyes. On his appointment as alternate captain GM Kent Hughes explained:
Because Josh is a guy who plays for the team, if only you knew the number of times he has played injured, particularly the year before, even the trainers were telling him to slow down, but he wasn’t having any of it. He just really wanted us to make the playoffs. He’s a team guy, he wants, he loves being here in Montreal and he brings good leadership to the kids.
Clearly, Anderson leads by example and is keen to take his teammates into battle, but he doesn’t just lead in that way. Juraj Slafkovsky made that quite clear:
Josh is just a natural leader you know, he plays hard, he’s always in a game being physical, you can feel his presence and I feel that’s the type of guy you want to have the A. He’s a great guy in the locker room as well and he can get a little mad too and you know, talk to you when you got to do something better, and I think that’s really important.
The first liner was then asked whether Anderson ever had to speak to him about things he needed to do better, and he smiled: "Yeah, I got it a couple of times when he told me I need to step up and I got to be better for sure."
That’s high praise all around for the rugged veteran who, a few years ago, was seen as a candidate to be traded in the rebuild. It feels like ages ago now, but even then, Anderson’s commitment to the Canadiens was clear; whenever he was asked about a possible move, he’d said he had signed a seven-year contract to play in Montreal and that’s where he wanted to be.
Anderson might not have lived up to his seven-year deal, at least offensively, but he delivered big time in leadership, and this appointment is a true testament to how much the organization has valued it. He may struggle to bury the puck when he gets free on the breakaway, but he’s fully mastered the role of leader.
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